How much snow is too much? Give your predictions – first snow, season total
THIS ARTICLE IS COMMENTARY AND PUBLISHED IN OUR EDITORIAL SECTION.
By Randy Arrington, publisher
The past few weeks have produced a warm Christmas, rather than a white one, and temperatures have breached the 50s in early January. While some enjoy the savings on heating bills, others wish for a white landscape covered in, should I dare say it…snow.
But be careful what you wish for… Consider the snowiest January in the past 58 years. According to local weather watcher Carl Quintrell of Stanley and information he sent to PVN this week, the following occurred in January of 1996:
• Saturday, January 6 — Snow starting between 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (light trace), 1 inch by 7 p.m. and 3.5 inches by midnight.
• Sunday, January 7 — 11 inches of snow on the ground at 8 a.m., 17 inches at noon, 23 inches at 8 p.m., and 30 inches by midnight.
• Monday, January 8 — 33 inches of snow on the ground at 9 a.m.
• Friday, January 12 — 4 inches of additional snow from 1 a.m. to 11 a.m.
By Thursday, January 18, temperatures had reached 61 degrees, five one-hundeds of an inch of rain fell and dissipated the final traces of snow by 10 p.m.
In addition to temperatures ranging from the 20s to the 60s, January of 1996 also experienced two winter thunderstorms. The first on Jan. 2 produced nearly an inch of rain (0.98) during a 15-minute thundershower from 5:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The high temperature for the day was 37 degrees, with a low of 33. The second winter thunderstorm occurred on Friday, Jan. 19 and produced 1.44 inches of rain at 9 a.m.
Total snowfall for January of 1996 was 37 inches. The January average snowfall for the Page Valley is 6.5 inches. One year ago, the county saw 11.5 inches of the white frozen stuff fall in January. While it only snowed on four days during the month, much of the ground in Page County was covered by snow for 21 days in January 2025.
In the past 57 years, there have been three Januarys with no measurable snowfall — 1972, 1974 and 2023.
Do you think this will be a snowy winter in the Page Valley? We do. We’ll even predict (guess) that the final week of the month will be extremely cold, with temperatures remaining near freezing for around a week ranging from the mid-30s down to the mid-20s, and we will see our first significant snowfall between Jan. 17-23. It will be at least six inches or more, and the county will exceed 20 inches of snow this winter.
Now that we have taken a shot at making our own Farmer’s Almanac forecast, what’s the wooly worm telling you? Is that ache in your joints make it seem like a long, hard winter, or do you think we’ll all be overstocked on firewood? What say you?
Please give your predictions in the COMMENTS below.
Stay warm this winter, and don’t forget about any furry friends kept outside.
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